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Beginner’s Guide to Clipless Pedals, Part 1

Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley

Pickleball, Spartan Racing, Ping-Pong – regardless of what new sport you’re trying to get up to speed on, it can be difficult to find enough helpful information for beginners. So, every now and then I like to put my rookie glasses on and look at some aspect of what people just getting into road cycling deal with.

This week’s Tech Talk and next’s will cover road bike pedals, which to a lot of new bike shoppers are one of the first mysteries of road bicycles.

To explain why, imagine if you went into a dealership to buy a new Toyota or Ford and every vehicle on the lot wasn’t equipped with a steering wheel. Ditto for the cars and trucks on their websites, and in all their advertising.

That would be weird, wouldn’t it? How can you take a test drive without a steering wheel? What do you hold onto when sliding into the seat and getting a feel for the cockpit? How can one dream about zipping through some sweet S-turn in an undriveable car?

Yes, it’s a ridiculous concept and it would never happen with cars. But, guess what? When it comes to road bicycles, something as important to riding as steering wheels are to driving IS missing: the pedals.

Bewildering Beginners

For some time now, with all the big bike companies, the majority of road bicycles in their lineup come without pedals. And if you look at their websites, print catalogs and advertising, all you see is crankarms with empty holes. In other words, unrideable bikes.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think it’s unfortunate that the bike industry apparently thinks this is okay. If I were in charge, all bikes would come with pedals and be shown with them. Because I’m convinced that many beginners are confused and turned off by the fact that the pedals aren’t included.

It leaves them at a dead-end with an unanswerable question when learning about and researching road bikes. They reason, “I can’t ride it without pedals, so, why doesn’t the bike come with them – especially at the price they’re asking?” What’s more if they look at the specifications for the bike, they’ll see under Pedals: “Not Included,” or words to that effect.

How Road Bikes Became Pedal-less

In an attempt to help with this situation, I want to give my take on how we got to where we are today, and explain what you (beginners) are expected to do with your new pedal-less road bike. Hopefully road cycling newbies trying to figure out why bikes don’t come with pedals will find this article and learn what they need to know to move past any confusion.

To go back to when all road bikes came with pedals, it was when bicycles had regular, basically flat, grippy pedals. In order to ride efficiently, you learned or were taught to pedal quickly – about 70 to 90 revolutions a minute (per foot) is an efficient “cadence.”

Toe Clips and Straps

Pedaling that fast takes practice and skill, and on those regular pedals, your feet could slip off. It was a common issue back in the 1960’s and 70’s and led to injuries and even accidents.

Luckily, a device was available to keep the feet on the pedals called the toe clip. This metal or later nylon cage attached to the pedal to cover the shoe and keep it in place on the pedal so that no matter how fast you pedaled your feet wouldn’t slip off.

Later, straps were added to toe clips allowing riders to essentially lock their feet to the pedals. Toe clips and straps were sold with some new road bikes and they could be added as an accessory if you had a road bike with flat pedals and no clips and straps.

Tip: Standard flat pedals and toe clips and straps are still available for road bikes. Courtesy of Compass Cycles, here are photos of some of my favorites, MKS pedals and toe clips ($79 and $15 or $17 respectively; MKS toe straps are also available for $23).

Clipless Pedals

Pedals with toe clips and straps worked well and were ubiquitous with roadies up until about 1984 when a new pedal came along, which became known as the “clipless pedal.” Notice that the word clip – as in toe clip is in the generic name of these new pedals.

They were called clip-less because this new type of pedal no longer needed a clip added to it to hold your feet on. Instead it had a built-in mechanism that engaged with special pieces (called “cleats”) you would attach to your cycling shoes to lock your feet to the pedals.

Those familiar with how step-in ski bindings worked, immediately saw the advantages of these new clipless pedals. And, while there were some holdouts (who were devotees of pedals with toe clips and straps), in about a decade, almost all roadies and road bikes had pretty much converted to clipless pedals.

Clipless Systems Take Off

At this point, it started to get complicated as myriad companies came out with different types of clipless pedal systems. Few worked with each other. And riders had their favorite systems and often several pairs of shoes all setup for that specific system.

It was at about this point, that the industry made the decision that they didn’t need to provide pedals with new bicycles. The reasoning was that every serious roadie already has their favorite clipless pedals and shoes, so why include pedals, since the new owner probably uses some other type anyway?

But, I think you can make a case for the fact that there are new road bike buyers who haven’t yet learned anything about pedals and would be happy to take and learn to use whatever type of clipless pedals are provided with their new bike.

What You Need to Decide in Order to Pick Pedals

Since you’re unlikely to get pedals with your new road rig, let’s look at your pedal options so that you can get the right pair.

Standard and Platform Pedals

First, you could get basic standard pedals just like what road bikes used to come with. They work fine if you toodle around the neighborhood or bike paths and don’t pedal quickly enough to risk your feet slipping off. If you like the pedals and start pedaling more quickly, you can still get toe clips and straps to add to these pedals (see photos above).

Clipless Pedals

If you start pedaling quickly and want to cover longer distances, clipless pedal systems outperform toe clip and strap pedals. Clips and straps don’t provide as positive a connection to the pedals. And, the clips and straps can cut off the circulation to the feet and cause chafing in some cases.

In order to go to clipless pedals, you do need to buy dedicated clipless-compatible shoes to go with whichever type of clipless pedals you choose.

Once you have the shoes and pedals, you can simply step onto the clipless pedals to lock into them. Jaws on the pedals or jaws on the cleats lock the shoes onto the pedals. This lets you apply force through more of the pedal stroke and ensures your feet won’t slip off by accident.

To free your feet from clipless pedals, you swing your heels to the outside which releases the jaws. Once you get used to getting in/out, it’s a fast and easy motion, which is why the first clipless pedals were marketed as safer than toe clips and straps, too.

The First Decision to Make

If you choose standard pedals for your new road rig, you don’t need to continue reading. But if you go with clipless, in order to get the right system, you first need to decide how you’re going to use the bike. If you’re not sure, it can help to think about where you plan to ride and what you’re going to do on rides. Or think about the friends you want to ride with and how they ride.

In general there are two broad camps of road riders. One group pretty much rides non-stop while the other type enjoys stopping during rides and spends time walking – maybe even hiking – or seeing the sights while off the bike.

For each camp, there are appropriate types of clipless pedal systems. We can call the first “performance clipless” and the second “walkable” or “recessed-cleat” systems. The main difference is in how the cleats mount to the shoes. (because the cleats are up inside the shoe soles for easy walking).

That’s not to say that you can’t ride for performance in walkable systems or walk in performance clipless shoes, but just that knowing how you’ll use your new bike will help narrow down your first choice. You’ve got a week to think about it.

Later in the month after Interbike takes place, I’ll explain in part 2 more about the different types of clipless pedals, pros and cons, provide some examples, and give you some important safety tips for getting started with clipless pedals.

Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. He has been a pro mechanic and cycling writer for more than 40 years. He’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Check out his “cycling aficionado” website at http://www.jimlangley.net, his Q&A blog and updates at Twitter. Jim’s streak of consecutive cycling days has reached more than 8,000. Click to read Jim’s full bio.

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Jim, A French company called Zefal made (and still may produce) hard plastic “toe cups”, which are in essence strapless toe clips. They come in 3 different sizes & hold feet on pedals when wearing street shoes. I believe other manufacturers also make similar products. It’s interesting to me that toe cups are rarely ever seen or reported in the world of cycling. They work for all types of cycling & I have used them for many years.

Thanks for the tip, Bob. Yes, toe “cups” are an option to toe clips, and are shaped more fully. Zefal is one of the oldest companies in cycling and their what they call “half clips” are actually available on Amazon here https://amzn.to/2NJ61lu and probably at some bike shops, too. They’re a nice alternative to metal toe clips that have edges that can dig into your shoes. The Zefal’s are nylon and you don’t need straps at all. This makes it easier to get out of the toe cups than the toe clips with straps, too. Thanks for reminding me about this option, Bob!

You haven’t mentioned the fundamental reason for purpose built riding shoes. That is the solid sole that doesn’t compress each time you apply force to the pedal. New riders may not realise that every other shoe is built for comfort with padding of some kind to absorb shock.

Excellent point, Steve. Yes, cycling specific shoes have stiffeners inside the shoes so that you pedal more efficiently (since a soft squishy sole that you have to compress isn’t between you and the pedal). Also, the stiffener helps prevent you feeling the pedals, which can become painful in some cases. If you’re going to ride in regular sneakers you should pick a pedal like platform models that are less likely to hurt your feet. But, you do lose some efficiency through the squishy soles.

In UK & Europe, new bikes sold as complete or fully assembled must conform to market standards which require pedals to have front and rear reflectors, front and rear frame-mounted reflectors, bell, wheel reflectors, front and rear brake, conformance sticker, etc. etc. By selling without pedals none of these things are required. Where some shops do sell complete bikes with clipless pedals, they have to fit snap-in adaptors which add a pair of relectors to each pedal or give you an extra set of flat pedals with reflectors built in.

Thats an interesting, point, Clive. Thanks for sharing. I know in the USA the Consumer Product Safety Commission at one point required reflectors on pedals (back in the early 1970’s), but I don’t know if that law is still in effect throughout the USA and all markets here (dept. store, online, etc.). Related trivia: the legendary bicycle company Phil Wood https://www.philwood.com/ made a pedal I used to ride with the model name CHP for California Highway Patrol – because the law forced them to put reflectors on that pedal. Still, it seems to me that this would be another reason bike companies SHOULD include pedals rather than not include them, i.e. for safety.

For whatever it is worth, I remember toe-clips with mixed emotions, but I do remember happily my Alfredo Binda Extra toe straps. They were the ne plus ultra of toe straps both for function and style points. These straps were multi-layered and never stretched so that I never had to snug them up during a ride. Of course, every one of us old-timers can recall going over turtle-style when we came to a stop and for one reason or another were unable to loosen at least one toe strap fast enough to get a foot down.. Doing a first-class track stand would have been a worthy solution, but is a skill I did not have and I’ve not acquired it even to this day.

I’ve otherwise been a Look Delta devotee for nearly thirty years. I would switch to Look Keo but for the fact that I have lots of bikes, refuse to purchase multiple pairs of pedals to replace those that work satisfactorily and I have no interest in moving pedals from one bike to another each morning. However, here in the Northeast where we get snow from about mid- December to mid-March, I use Shimano SPD pedals on my winter bikes. Even though the streets may be clear of snow or ice, sidewalks are often not well cleared. If I am going to take a coffee break or get off the bike for any reason, the recessed SPD cleats make for much easier walking over ice etc. than the protruding and slippery plastic Look cleats, which make for difficult walking even in dry, warm weather.

The same argument for not including pedals on new bikes would apply for not including a seat on a new bike… and once you are well down that path, so too for the handlebar width and shape, the shifter style and reach, etc, etc, etc… hey, perhaps that is why I choose to buy custom bikes these days! 😉

Given that there are so many choices for pedals and shoes out there, it’s no surprise to me that manufacturers are giving that choice to the consumer, instead of making it for them, which ‘forces’ the consumer into buying a pedal they may very well not want. Let the LBS make recommendations based on assessing the consumer’s need so the consumer will more likely have something they’ll be happy with. As far as other stock equipment on bikes (gruppos, handlebars, stems, saddles, etc.), the same principle could apply, but pedals are a much bigger deal. After an entry-level purchase, the new cyclist will progress up the learning curve and figure it out. And, of course, spend a lot more money to upgrade components, as we all have. But that’s part of the fun of one’s evolution as a cyclist!

Addendum to my comment above…the reason I said the pedals are a bigger deal is that, if you end up with several bikes, if you have the same pedal on all of them, then you only need one pair of shoes (type of cleat) that will work with all of them.